ShaleDirectories, LLC.: Andrew Cuomo Chooses New York State’s Ending: In Ice

Tom Shepstone
Natural Gas NOW

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Andrew Cuomo bragged last week that he had banned fracking, stopped pipelines and would prevent any more gas plants, ensuring New York State will end in ice.

Some readers will recall Robert Frost’s famous “Fire and Ice” poem regarding the two possible ways the world might end. He was talking metaphorically, of course, and ice represented hate, which is why it serves so well to doubly illustrate the absurdity of his incredibly irresponsible remarks last week. He’s leading New York State to death by ice both figuratively and literally.

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Note: Dual fuel facilities are primarily natural gas fueled power plants that only use oil as a backup fuel source.

Let’s start with the literal part. New York State has become a place where it is impossible to do anything energy-wise. Why? Well, because ideology and NIMBYism have been raised up as virtues, as facts and their implications are relegated to politically incorrect speech to be ignored. The oil and natural gas industry has been targeted for hate, while other energy options preached by the haters are conveniently rejected on the basis of patently ridiculous excuses, ensuring nothing happens except by extreme effort or bribery.

Yes, the very same individuals who hate natural gas and lecture us all about the need to go with “clean energy” show up at planning board meetings to oppose those projects, too. I know. I see them at the meetings. They use the same “industrialization” language, in fact. It’s not that a solar or wind farm doesn’t have environmental impacts. That’s a message we’ve delivered here numerous times. No, it’s about the deliberate failure to reckon with the facts and proceed rationally to make realistic energy choices. That’s nigh impossible in New York these days due to demagogues such as Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo, in a grotesque episode of pandering I mentioned here Saturday, told fractivists funded by the Park Foundation and others this:

“I don’t build any fossil-fuel plants anymore, and I banned fracking, and I have the most aggressive renewable goals in the country,” he insisted, according to Politico.com. He also credited himself with blocking new pipelines.

He’s running against Cynthia Nixon, of course, who is even worse, and that is the explanation; he’s trying to get to her left by demonstrating he hates oil and gas more than her. But, does that make any sense, even in New York? Wouldn’t a crafty politician want to position himself as the steady hand with a grip on reality and point out the new Nixon might not be a crook but is clearly a kook? Is New York really that far gone? Is hate for oil and gas really that deep, when the conversion of New York City boilers from heavy oil to gas has literally saved hundreds of lives and the City keeps using more gas?

Andrew Cuomo is clearly running scared. Somehow, though, I suspect there’s more to it. What it is, precisely, I can’t say, but I suspect its a combination of him having sold his political soul to the NRDC gang and, conversely, not having been successful in getting graft out of the oil and gas industry (other than CPV Energy Valley, of course). Cuomo, the crime boss capo, deals out punishment to those who don’t play ball with him and keeping the NRDC gang at bay is always useful as well.

“Crime and the State” vs. “Sex and the City”

The problem for New Yorkers, though, is that Andrew Cuomo’s game is going to ensure the state ends in ice, figuratively speaking. We know this from the latest report issued by there state’s electric grid manager, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). Here are the fundamentals, which can be easily missed amidst the foggy bureaucratic language and attempts by NYISO to politically thread the needle:

“Reflecting economic and public policy investment signals, generation additions have primarily been natural gas-fueled or wind-powered. Since 2000, nearly 12,000 MW of new generating capacity came online in New York State. This additional generation represents approximately 30% of NewYork’s current generation capacity. Nearly 80% of that new generation has been developed in southern and eastern New York, where power demand is greatest.” Translation: Our generating capacity needs constant updating and new natural gas power plants the governor says he won’t approve are absolutely essential.
“The portion of New York’s generating capability from natural gas and dual-fuel facilities grew from 47% in 2000 to 58% in 2018. Wind power — virtually non-existent in 2000 — grew to 4.5%of New York State’s generating capability in 2018.” Translation: Don’t count on wind power; it doesn’t even amount a tenth of that generation capability added by natural gas.
Generators with comparatively low fuel and operating costs are usually selected in wholesale electricity markets to consistently supply power. They typically have average annual capacity factors of 70% or higher. Lower capacity factors indicate that a generator operates less frequently, such as during peak demand periods, or that its operation depends on the intermittent availability of its fuel supply, such as hydro, solar, and wind energy… The relative capacity factors of different types of generation are important considerations in planning the future fuel mix. For example, based on 2017 operating performance, it would require nearly 3.4 MW of wind capacity to produce the same amount of energy as 1.0 MW of nuclear capacity over the course of a year. Translation: Natural gas power plants provide the power when needed—on demand—and operate at capacity factors at least twice as good as wind. Only politically craven ideological idiots would choose wind over gas.
In August 2016, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) adopted a Clean Energy Standard (CES), requiring that 50% of the energy consumed in New York State be generated from renewable resources by 2030 (50-by-30 goal). Under the CES, electric utilities and others serving load in New York State are responsible for securing a defined percentage of the load they serve from eligible renewable and nuclear resources. The load serving entities will comply with the CES by either procuring qualifying credits or making alternative compliance payments. In order to achieve the 50-by-30 goal, the PSC determined that approximately 70,500 GWh of total renewable energy will need to be generated by 2030 — including approximately 29,200 GWh of new renewable energy production in addition to existing levels of production at the time the order was adopted. Translation: Almost all of our existing renewable energy comes from hydro-electric facilities. How, in God’s name, are we going to more than double that without using natural gas as a bridge and to avoid covering upstate with highly inefficient solar and wind farms?
The NYISO has assessed a variety of scenarios to determine whether 2,400 MW of offshore wind production could be injected into the gridwithout thermal overloads. The NYISO’s analysis concluded that it was feasible to accommodate the injection of 2,400 MW of offshore windwithout overloading transmission lines and violating thermal reliability criteria. This assessment did not examine system upgrade costs or other interconnection costs that would likely be associated with reliably delivering new capacity on the grid. These types of issues will ultimately come to light as specific proposed projects are examined through theNYISO’s interconnection study process. Translation: Off-shore wind? Are you kidding? Is the governor out of his mind? Where are the grown-ups?

There’s much more, of course, but astute readers will have no difficulty reading between the lines. New York State, under a Governor Corruptocrat running scared of a political opponent even more unreal than himself, is headed toward a collapse of its grid capacity if it takes his policy prescriptions even slightly seriously. New York may well end in ice if the adults don’t show up soon.